Icom command mic failed - now have to replace everything?

[Gudgeon]

Bycrick when working was 2M certified still have contacts that are working so have access to the tools and equipment. So it is not an assumption on my part. The down fall of this I will have to removed the cable from the back of radio (nav station) to the helm.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Gudgeon

Sailorick424 as noted by Jammer is is fairly straight forward task may be a bit tediius and require some soldering skills. That said I have not been able to find the connectors, ICOM has been no help they state the LRU in the mick and cable and can't (won't) provide a part number.
The connectors will have a keyway so you can build a chart of the wire color to pin for the male side and female then do you wiring. I believe it is an 8 pin connector and I am not sure if all pins are used. I am not on the boat so I can look at the connector.
I am at the point if I can find a connector soon I will just splice the wire together, unfortunatly this means the mick will have to live at the helm.

My experience with most marine "flexible" multiconductor cables is that they're usually thin stranded copper wires (around 24 or 26AWG) in coloured jackets, so they're not too difficult to solder onto a new miniature multipin connector... but possibly beyond the skills of a beginner. Tinsel or litz wires are indeed harder. I've had success with some of these by carefully using a lighter to melt/burn the insulation at the ends, scrape the ash off, and try to tin it.

You can choose any connector set you want (with the right number of pins) as the intermediate connection set. I would be tempted to try a set of these connectors; with some dielectric grease they might stand up OK. Or you could seek out a better waterproof grade, eg Deutsch connectors.

[sailorick424]

Thanks everyone for the valuable recommendations. I've had no experience soldering teeny wires. What I decide to do will probably be one of my 'winter' projects. Will use the handheld in the cockpit until then.

[skenn_ie]

Someone gave me a "call-centre" headset where the wire had broken at the grommet. The wires were like hairs ! Despite 40 years of electronics (I once hand-soldered about 13,000 thro-hole component pins over 3 weeks), I balked at that repair. My eyesight isn't good enough, and my hands aren't steady enough.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by skenn_ie

Someone gave me a "call-centre" headset where the wire had broken at the grommet. The wires were like hairs ! Despite 40 years of electronics (I once hand-soldered about 13,000 thro-hole component pins over 3 weeks), I balked at that repair. My eyesight isn't good enough, and my hands aren't steady enough.

I'm not too proud to use a headworn magnifier or some 10x watchmakers glasses when working with small stuff. They give me the sight of a 40 yr old!

I've also acquired some tweezers etc that are suitable for surface-mount components.

[skenn_ie]

I did build some circuits using a binocular microscope. A microwave transmitter and receiver, cutting tiny strips of copper foil to glue to a substrate, 0.5mm pitch SMT mixer and filters etc.

[sailorick424]

UPDATE
Sent my mic and extention cable to seawire marine. We identified a suitable robust waterproof connector. They removed old plug and socket and added new ones.

After several days on the chesapeake bay I can report it's working like a new one.
Yay